The eight limbs of yoga : a handbook for living yoga philosophy

82 Pages·2015·0.52 MB·English

by  Stuart Ray Sarbacker, Kevin Kimple, Christopher Key Chapple

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Table of Contents
About the Authors
Copyright Page

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To all aspiring yogins and yoginīs
By the strength gained through this practice, we can come to know the method
of bringing the mind and sense organs under control. Thus can we achieve
yoga. For it is only through the control of the mind and sense organs that we
come to know our true nature, and not through intellectual knowledge, or by
putting on the garb of a yogi.
—Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Yoga Mala
Foreword
This concise book provides a user’s guide to the practice of yoga. Nearly twenty
million people regularly practice some form of yoga in the United States. A
typical yoga class will include some stretching, some yoga postures, focused
breathing, and, generally at the end of the class, a period of deep relaxation.
Yoga returns people to their bodies and breath, allowing for a contemplative
space to arise.
In some yoga classes, students may be encouraged to pause and
cultivate a moment of mindfulness, and perhaps carry that from the yoga class
into the world. The beginning point of being mindful, as this book gently
shows, entails being aware of the basic need for inner and outer safety. Yoga
advocates the principle of do no harm. By restraining oneself from aggression
or violence in thought, word, and deed, one develops an atmosphere of peace
that can put others at ease. This principle then governs the other ethical
teachings of yoga: to be truthful, honest, respectful in matters of sexuality, and
nonhoarding. With this ongoing discipline, a person can then seek the positive
yoga components of purity, happiness, steadfastness, contemplative study, and
dedication to higher ideals.
The mind states of yoga result in the ability to gather oneself inward, to
cultivate focus. This focus can lead to meditation, the capacity to sustain
attention on a goal higher than and beyond self-concern. Building on the
traditional philosophy known as Sāṃkhya, yoga provides techniques by which
one can rise above mistaken notions governed by ignorance, egoism,
attraction, repulsion, and the drive toward self-perpetuation. By
understanding the workings of the realm of karma, and by reshaping the body
and mind through mastery of breath, one can distinguish between the realm of
change and the changeless witness. This witness consciousness, a place of
freedom, can become, through yoga, the ground for integrative being in the
world.
Samādhi, the goal of yoga, allows one to dissolve the boundaries
between self and world. This experience takes many forms and can involve
many different techniques. Yoga leaves open many options and can be
practiced by atheists as well as by devotees of one of the many embodiments of
the divine. By focusing on how the mind functions, yoga shows what is
possible, without demanding allegiance to any one particular set of beliefs.
Buddhists, Hindus, Jainas, Sikhs, and Muslims have used yogic techniques for
centuries, techniques that are now being widely applied in the modern world
by Christians, Jews, and secularists.
This book, remarkable for its brevity, provides a road map for the
exploration of yoga. Stuart Ray Sarbacker and Kevin Kimple have masterfully
covered the basics of yoga philosophy without compromising its complexity
and profundity. Read in conjunction with one of the many good translations of
Patañjali’s Yogasūtra, this book can help the student of yoga understand the
transformative potential of yoga practice.
Christopher Key Chapple
Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology Director, Master of Arts in
Yoga Studies Loyola Marymount University